INZO, by all metrics a (relatively) unknown artist, struck gold in 2018 with his massive single, Overthinker. At time of writing, its sitting at nearly 31 million plays on Spotify. It was so successful that now, CloZee has just dropped her official remix.

When INZO asked me to remix Overthinker, I was extremely honored because its one of my all time favorites. I used to play it a lot in my sets. For that reason, it was also the most challenging remix Ive had to do. The expectations are very high since the original song is a hit. I hope people will like this new journey based on the words of Alan Watts and INZOs amazing sounds, says CloZee.

Sitting here now listening to her take on the hit, in her own words, she has definitely done it justice. A lot of the same soundscapes and motifs are carried through to the remix, with so many new twists and turns in the production. The addition of the chopped vocals is breathtaking, and the more swingy rhythm plays well to CloZees own sound beautifully.

Check it out below!

Originally posted here:
CloZee Drops New Remix Of INZO's Massive Hit, "Overthinker" - Your EDM

The Court of Appeal has upheld a decision to strike out a malicious falsehood claim on the grounds that the proceedings were abusive and disclosed no reasonable cause of action under s. 3(1) of the Defamation Act 1952: Tinkler v Ferguson [2021] EWCA Civ 18.

The judgment addresses the application of the law on abuse of process where it is alleged that an action has already been substantially litigated and determined in separate litigation involving different parties.

Alan Watts, Chris Cox and Angela Liu, who acted for the Respondents in the appeal, consider the decision below.

Background

The malicious falsehood proceedings which are the subject of this appeal (the Malicious Falsehood Claim) arose in the context of a boardroom battle that occurred in 2018 within Stobart Group Ltd (the Company). At that time, the Appellant, Mr Tinkler, was a substantial shareholder and director of the Company. The claimant believed that the then chairman, Mr Ferguson, should not continue in his role as chairman. (Mr Ferguson was later re-elected as chairman at the AGM in July 2018.)

The claimant brought the Malicious Falsehood Claim in June 2018, at that time as a claim in both defamation and malicious falsehood, in connection with the Companys publication of an announcement on the London Stock Exchanges Regulatory News Service (the RNS Announcement). It followed an earlier RNS announcement which gave notice of the boardroom dispute in progress. The claim was brought against Mr Ferguson and three other directors of the Company (together the Respondents).

About a week after the Malicious Falsehood Claim was issued, the claimant was dismissed as a director and employee, and the Company launched an action against the Appellant seeking a declaration that his dismissal was justified (the Stobart Action). The Appellant counter-claimed in that action for a declaration that his removal was invalid and sought an order for reinstatement. The Stobart Action was expedited and went to trial in November 2018. In a detailed judgment, HHJ Russen QC ruled on a number of issues arising from the boardroom dispute. In summary, the judge found that the Appellant had acted in breach of both his fiduciary duties as a director of the Company and his contractual duties as an employee, and that his dismissal from the Company had been lawful and valid.

Following a hearing in December 2019, the Appellant abandoned his defamation action to leave only the Malicious Falsehood Claim. The Respondents applied to strike out the Malicious Falsehood Claim on the grounds that it was an abuse of process, or alternatively that it disclosed no reasonably arguable or properly particularised claim for pecuniary loss under s. 3(1) of the Defamation Act 1952 nor any claim for special damage.

The High Court (Nicklin J) granted the strike-out application, finding that the continuation of the Malicious Falsehood Claim would be an abuse of process because the Appellants complaints had already been substantially litigated and determined in the Stobart Action. Nicklin J also found that the Appellant did not have a properly arguable case that he had more likely than not been caused pecuniary damage as required by s. 3(1) of the Defamation Act 1952. The Appellant appealed.

Decision

The Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal and upheld Nicklin Js decision to strike out the Malicious Falsehood Claim for the reasons he gave.

Abusive proceedings

In his leading judgment, Peter Jackson LJ provided an overview of the law on abuse of process by reference to the established authorities before considering counsels arguments on abuse in some detail.

The Court of Appeal held that the law of abuse is designed necessarily to restrict the right of litigants to seek a determination of their civil rights before the courts by preventing abusive and duplicative litigation. The court has an inherent power to prevent misuse of its procedure where the process would be manifestly unfair to a litigant or would otherwise bring the administration of justice into disrepute.

Taking into account the private and public interests involved, the court is required to consider the central question of whether in all the circumstances a party is abusing or misusing the courts process (Johnson v Gore Wood & Co [2002] 2 AC 1). The Court of Appeal in the present case clarified that an abuse of process can arise in a variety of circumstances and that these are not limited to fixed categories.

The Court of Appeal, in dismissing the appeal, ultimately found that:

No reasonable cause of action

The Court of Appeal also held that the Appellant had not sufficiently demonstrated that he had a reasonable cause of action, as he had failed to establish that the requirements of s. 3(1) of the Defamation Act 1952 had been met.

The Court of Appeal noted the lack of specificity in the Appellants pleaded case on damage, agreeing with Nicklin J that it was vague and speculative. The Appellant also faced certain difficulties in establishing that the RNS Announcement had actually caused him the pecuniary loss complained of, because only two weeks later the Appellant had suffered a high-profile dismissal from the Company. That dismissal was then subsequently justified by the handing down of the widely publicised judgment in the Stobart Action. Both of these later events were considered by Nicklin J (with whom the Court of Appeal agreed) to be objectively more likely than the fairly anodyne RNS Announcement to have caused the Appellant pecuniary damage.

The court concluded that, even if it were possible to distinguish the pecuniary loss suffered by the Appellant solely as a result of the RNS Announcement, in so far as that pecuniary loss was reflected by a drop in the Companys share price, the almost immediate market recovery of the stock in the weeks after the RNS Announcement meant that no substantial tort had been committed. Under the Jameel principle (from Jameel v Dow Jones [2005] EWCA Civ 75), the court can strike out claims where no real or substantial tort has been disclosed; on these facts, the Court decided that Jameel had been engaged because the value of the Appellants claim would be entirely disproportionate to the effort and cost required to determine it.

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Court of Appeal upholds strike-out of malicious falsehood claim as an abuse of process and because it disclosed no reasonably arguable claim for...

JANUARY 22, 2021

AT THE BEGINNING of her 2013 memoir, Joanna Harcourt-Smith jokingly remarks that she had always fantasized about sleeping with three men: JFK, Jimi Hendrix, and Timothy Leary. By 1970, the first two were dead, so she gravitated toward the latter. While her joke appears to be cocktail party banter, Harcourt-Smith, a Franco-Swiss socialite-turned-author, is a fantastically strong-willed woman able to bend reality to her wishes. Errol Morriss new film, My Psychedelic Love Story, boldly chronicles Harcourt-Smiths troubled childhood and her intensely fraught romance with psychologist and psychedelic drug advocate Timothy Leary in the true decade of excess: the 1970s. The film is centered around Harcourt-Smiths whirlwind romance with Leary, which culminates with Learys capture and imprisonment in Afghanistan in 1973. The film also documents Harcourt-Smiths three-and-a-half-year campaign to free Leary of a 25-year prison sentence.

The narrative arc of Morriss new documentary resembles the chaotic trajectory of an intense LSD trip: ecstatic highs and Dantean lows with a miraculous release from bondage at the very end. And like all mind-bending LSD trips, My Psychedelic Love Story asks the crucial question when its finally over: What the hell just happened? Harcourt-Smith has not been able to satisfactorily answer that question some 45 years later. At the beginning of My Psychedelic Love Story, Joanna speculates that she might have been manipulated by CIA operatives seeking to ensnare Leary in a trap. The countercultural icon was, after all, wanted by the Nixon administration, the FBI, and the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs (BNDD). Although My Psychedelic Love Story asks more questions than it can answer, it still ends up being an enormously satisfying cinematic experience.

Like many of Morriss films, My Psychedelic Love Story defies generic categorization; its a love story wrapped in an espionage novel, with LSD constantly blurring the viewers sense of historical truth and reality. What it is, undoubtedly, is a Morris picture. It further evokes his 2010 film Tabloid, which also dealt with an obsessive love story and centered on a charismatically unhinged protagonist. And it can also be treated as a quirky companion piece to his miniseries Wormwood (2017), a chronicle of the CIA mind-control program known as MKUltra that went terribly wrong when a CIA chemist was dosed unknowingly and committed suicide. However, in Morriss six-part docudrama, the alleged suicide is revealed to be a murder that has been covered up by the government authorities. Like Wormwood, My Psychedelic Love Story is a probing psychoanalytic journey into its subjects dislocated psyche, attempting to lay bare the political and psychological forces that shaped Harcourt-Smiths chaotic life in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Lastly, My Psychedelic Love Story also evokes The Thin Blue Line (1988) and Standard Operating Procedure (2008) in the sense that it examines how prison authorities are apt to use torture and manipulation to make subjects confess and tell the stories that they want to hear.

My Psychedelic Love Story is also an innovative film that attempts to transform the talking-heads format that is ubiquitous in documentary filmmaking. It begins with a lone talking head, Harcourt-Smith, pressing the button on a reel-to-reel tape player that plays the voice of Timothy Leary from Vacaville prison in 1974. The opening scene can be considered an homage to the old-fashioned talking-heads approach to documentary filmmaking, since Morriss protean film slowly transforms before the viewers eyes as Harcourt-Smith narrates her tale. Morris and graphics artist Jeremy Landman punctuate Harcourt-Smiths dialogue with symbolic objects handcuffs, cars, revolvers, taxis, martini glasses placed on colorful LSD blotter paper, ominous tarot card images, and color-drenched newspaper headlines that move across the screen in kaleidoscopic slow motion. Although most filmmakers simulate psychedelic experiences by showing rapid sensory-overload sequences, My Psychedelic Love Story slows it down and features a series of striking images that convey the internal life of Harcourt-Smith during her encounters with Leary in the winter of 1972. With help from his creative team (editor Steven Hathaway and music director Paul Leonard-Morgan), Morris has created a mise-en-scne that hypnotizes the viewer with visual and aural cues (the sounds of a Zippo lighter or a gun clicking). The end result is a cinematic style that is bewitching, but also germane to the story that Morris wants to tell; My Psychedelic Love Story is, after all, a grandiose tale about the alteration of consciousness.

The narrative of My Psychedelic Love Story is concerned with unraveling Harcourt-Smiths past and her complicated family history. She was the daughter of Cecyl Harcourt-Smith, a silver-haired Etonian aristocrat who was a commander in the Royal Navy. Her mother, Marisya Ulam, was an attractive and domineering Jewish heiress whose family left Poland and settled in Paris in the 1930s. Marisya and her family eventually settled in Switzerland to escape from the Nazis, but many of her relatives in Poland were not so fortunate. Cecyls marriage to Marisya was brief, and he was never actually present in Joannas life. Although Joanna grew up in extreme wealth, her childhood was an unhappy one. In her 2013 memoir, Tripping the Bardo with Timothy Leary, Joanna Harcourt-Smith described her mother as a woman who spoke seven languages and in her rage would effortlessly slide from one language to another for words with which to abuse me. Sometimes, even seven languages did not seem to suffice. But perhaps the most disturbing episode of her youth was being molested by the family chauffeur at the age of 11. According to Harcourt-Smith, when she described the experience to her mother, she replied, Lies wont get you what you want, Joanna, and then, good servants are hard to find. These experiences pushed her to search for a father figure who could heal her trauma.

The paths of Harcourt-Smith and Leary crossed when the ex-Harvard psychologist was living in exile in Switzerland in 1972. After his successful escape from the California Mens Colony in San Luis Obispo in September 1972, Leary was living incognito in a modest Swiss chalet. Harcourt-Smith first learned about his whereabouts from her former lover Michel Hauchard, an affluent Swiss arms dealer with CIA connections. The CIA had been closely monitoring Learys movements in Switzerland and was aware that he might flee because his Swiss visa would be expiring in a few months. When Hauchard related the details of Learys prison escape to Harcourt-Smith, she became fascinated with the renegade psychologist; she thought to herself, This is so exciting, I always wanted to be with an outlaw. Her comment reveals her youthful navet and attraction to danger. Little did she know that her association with Leary would turn her life upside down.

Prior to meeting Leary, Harcourt-Smith had a habit of getting pregnant and ending up in marriages that she didnt really want to be in. After two short-lived marriages and giving birth to a daughter and a son, she realized her destiny lied elsewhere. When she learned that Leary was living near Lucerne, she found his phone number in Michel Hauchards leather-bound address book and called him up. When Leary first spoke with her on the phone, he was worried that she might be a CIA plant trying to lure him into a trap. When Harcourt-Smith finally encountered Leary in a Kunsterhalle [art exhibition gallery] in Lucerne, their meeting could be described as love at first sight, or as a case of mutual obsession. When they are alone, Leary remarked, You have come to free me and bring me back to America. Although she did not know exactly what he was talking about, she would soon find out.

Although Leary and Harcourt-Smith took a lot of LSD together, she is not a drug-addled interview subject. Her emotional memories of her love affair with Leary are indelibly etched into her brain. Her description of her first sexual experience with Leary is particularly vivid: when the two lovers are tripping, Harcourt-Smith begins to undress, and before they make love, Leary places bracelets, necklaces, and various pieces of Indian jewelry all over her naked body and declares, You are Lakshmi [the Hindu goddess who nurtures all life]. Then the psychologist shows her a Life Magazine article from 1972 that contains pictures of the human brain. As Leary and Harcourt-Smith marvel at the black-and-white photographs of the brain, Leary points to the photographs and explains, That is where I am going to make love to you. This is the first of many lovemaking sessions that lead Harcourt-Smith to declare that they were truly bonded.

All in all, LSD bonding sessions would continue for some 49 days as Leary and Harcourt-Smith crisscrossed Switzerland and Austria in Learys canary yellow Porsche that was purchased with advanced royalties from his soon-to-be-published book, Confessions of a Hope Fiend. Although their relationship certainly could be described as drug-induced escapism, Leary was always aware that the BNDD was monitoring his movements and that he would probably be caught eventually. What is perhaps most striking about My Psychedelic Love Story is the films uncanny ability to recreate Harcourt-Smiths memories of LSD trips and the highs of self-destructive romance so evocatively.

The second part of My Psychedelic Love Story deals with coming down from the drugs and the sex and experiencing the ultimate bummer: Learys being captured in Kabul by Nixons BNDD. Prior to capturing Leary, Nixon had famously described the ex-Harvard professor as the most dangerous man in America. Harcourt-Smiths narrative suggests that Nixons capture of Leary in Kabul was timed to coincide with the presidents second inauguration celebration in January 1973. The public defeat of Leary, an LSD proselytizer and a vocal opponent of the Vietnam War, had great propagandistic value for Nixons Law and Order platform. As Leary is put on trial and imprisoned in 1973, Joanna begins to act as Learys advocate for his release. This is the point in the film where she shows her grit and determination.

Harcourt-Smith embarks on a Kafkaesque journey into American politics and the nations legal system, in which she learns that the Nixon administration is using the Leary trial to secure additional funding for a new government body: the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA). Harcourt-Smith also learns that the ex-Harvard psychologist is regarded as an ideological trafficker and is placed in solitary confinement for four and a half months, given weekly injections of antipsychotic drugs without his consent. According to Robert Greenfields biography of Leary, on one occasion that Harcourt-Smith visits Leary in prison, she notices that Learys mane of hair has been shaved off and that the prison barber has left encrusted blood on his skull. When she realizes that Leary may lose his mind from forced Thorazine injections, she urges the countercultural icon to become a government informant. (Given the amount of torture he endured in 1973 and 1974, its a wonder that Leary held out as long as he did.)

When Leary becomes an informant, My Psychedelic Love Story becomes a meditation on the malleability of the human will under extreme duress and imprisonment. Morris highlights an evocative moment from Harcourt-Smiths childhood when she was pressured to testify against the familys gardener. Although she knew that the gardener had not touched [her] pee pee, the police used pressure to make her tell them what they wanted to hear. At this point, My Psychedelic Love Story suggests that Skinnerian-minded authorities can elicit a confession by exerting psychological pressure on the subject. Learys decision to become a narc is predicated on the fact that he would otherwise spend the rest of his adult life in prison; for the most part, Leary gave the DEA and the FBI information that they already had. Leary, after all, had been living in Europe for nearly three years, so whatever information that he had about the Weather Underground was outdated. [1]

The film ends with Learys release from prison in April 1976 and the demise of Leary and Harcourt-Smiths relationship. Although the couple is reunited and renamed James and Nora Joyce when placed in the Witness Protection Program in New Mexico, their relationship quickly disintegrates into alcoholic fights and nasty recriminations. After one particularly awful fight, as Harcourt-Smith remembers it, Leary drove away from their A-frame house in New Mexico in a used Ford Pinto and never came back. There is no happy ending in My Psychedelic Love Story. Rather, the narrative of the film is Harcourt-Smiths quest to heal her pulverized psyche and find out who she really is. Although Harcourt-Smiths relationship with Leary could be described as an open wound, the film makes it clear that Harcourt-Smith never regretted her affair with Leary; however, she was profoundly saddened when their relationship did not continue once Leary was released from prison.

Morriss film is especially powerful because it exposes the insanity of the war on drugs by documenting its casualties. I wish I could say that the subject matter of My Psychedelic Love Story is ancient history, but Americans are still living under Nixons Controlled Substances Act (1970), a federal law that considers cannabis, LSD, and magic mushrooms to be dangerous drugs with no accepted medical use. Although many states continue to legalize and decriminalize cannabis, the CSA is still often used by law enforcement to harass and subjugate people of color and psychedelic healers, especially in states where cannabis is still illegal. The fact that Leary was given a 25-year sentence for possessing a minuscule amount of cannabis will undoubtedly come as a surprise to many young people. [2] That said, My Psychedelic Love Story is ultimately not about Timothy Leary and his imprisonment. Its a film about a woman who survived and has been trying to piece together her story and figure out what really happened to her.

For many decades, Harcourt-Smith had a bad reputation in psychedelic circles. In the 1970s, many suspected that she was a CIA agent and frequently greeted her with misogynistic abuse. In her post-Leary years, she became sober and eventually wrote her engaging autobiography. She gave up alcohol and other addictive drugs, but she continued to be an advocate for psychedelics and their healing potential. Harcourt-Smiths story is an important one because historians of psychedelic culture have too often focused on the tales of larger-than-life men Aldous Huxley, Alan Watts, Ken Kesey, Hunter S. Thompson, and, of course, Leary. To more fully understand the era, we need to talk more about the psychedelic heroines who lived equally extraordinary lives. For many decades, Harcourt-Smiths story has been relegated to the margins of psychedelic history. Few people in the publishing industry took her story seriously, and all the major publishing houses rejected her memoir. The rejection letters that Harcourt-Smith received tacitly suggested that psychedelic narratives about women were somehow less important and less relevant than narratives about men. Morriss film makes it clear that she is not merely a minor player in psychedelic history. Her self-published memoir and My Psychedelic Love Story speak to many people because they offer powerful narratives of redemption; she survived the wreckage of the 1970s and converted to Buddhism. In the last two decades of her life, she became a prolific podcaster, an activist for psychedelic healing, and a passionate critic of our nations inhumane drug policies. [3]

The last frame of the film reveals that Harcourt-Smith passed away on October 12, 2020, while surrounded by her husband, children, and grandchildren. Harcourt-Smith, who was 74 at the time of her death, learned that she had developed Stage IV breast cancer when My Psychedelic Love Story was being put together and edited. When the COVID-19 pandemic struck in early 2020, it looked like the film would probably not be completed in time for Harcourt-Smith to see it. I recently contacted Harcourt-Smiths husband, Jos Luis Soler, and her daughter, Lara Tambacopoulou, to see if Joanna had a chance to see the film before she died; both told me that Joanna was able to see the completed film just three weeks before she died. They reported that she adored the film and watched it many times. She was at peace because she died knowing that her story was finally being told.

James Penner is the editor ofTimothy Leary: The Harvard Years(2014) and the author ofPinks, Pansies, and Punks: The Rhetoric of Masculinity in American Literary Culture(2011).

[1] The leaders of the WU who facilitated Learys escape from the California Mens Colony were never actually caught by the FBI.

[2] In 1970, Leary was given a 10-year sentence for possessing a few grams of marijuana. In 1973, he was given a 25-year sentence for marijuana possession and for escaping from the California Mens Colony in San Luis Obispo. Since Leary was 52 when he was convicted, he would be 77 when released, according to John Bryans Whatever Happened to Timothy Leary? (1980).

[3] At the time of her death, Harcourt-Smith and her partner Jos Luis Gmez Soler had interviewed over 400 subjects for their podcast, Future Primitive (see https://futureprimitive.org/).

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The Anatomy of the LSD Romance in the 1970s: On Errol Morris's My Psychedelic Love Story - Los Angeles Review of Books - lareviewofbooks

David Alan Watts, 40, from Ramsbury, appeared at Bristol Crown Court for sentencing.

He had previously stood trial and been found guilty of five offences, namely false imprisonment, three counts of raping a child under the age of 13 and sexual assault on a child under the age of 13.

Today he was jailed for 23 years, with five years extended licence.

Police were called to an address in Ramsbury in the early hours of 13 June by a young girl who said Watts, who was known to his victims, was armed with a knife and was behaving in an aggressive and threatening manner.

While she was speaking to a call handler, Watts, who had locked all the doors and the windows, snatched the phone away from her.

When officers arrived they found the girl standing in the window holding a handwritten note that said break in, he is trying to stab us.

They quickly gained entry and ran upstairs, forcing the door to one of the bedrooms and found three young girls sitting on a bed crying, while Watts was holding a knife to the throat of a woman who was holding a toddler.

PC Chris Miller discharged a Taser against Watts and then he, and assisting officers, physically restrained Watts, using a Pava spray to bring the situation under control.

During the incident, PC Miller suffered a broken bone in his hand and sustained knife wounds to his hand, while another officer was bitten.

During the trial the Judge commended PC Miller and Special Constable Dave Turner for their bravery during the response to this incident and said he would be recommending them for recognition.

At sentencing he commended everyone involved with the investigation for their hard work.

Detective Constable Leannda Benfield, from Wiltshire Polices Public Protection Department (PPD), said todays sentencing marked the end of a difficult six months for Watts victims.

She said: Firstly I want to pay tribute to the victims in this case who have been so brave in speaking to us about what happened to them so we were able to bring Watts to justice and see him put behind bars for a very long time.

Not only was the night itself an incredibly frightening and traumatic incident, but there had also been previous occasions of sexual abuse.

Throughout this process we have worked hard to provide all the necessary support to make sure their welfare has been our priority.

She added: We would always urge anyone who has been the victim of sexual abuse, no matter when the offences occurred, to come forward and speak to police. We have specially-trained teams to investigate these types of crimes and we will deal with your report sensitively.

Detective Superintendent Ben Mant, head of PPD, praised the teams who had worked on this investigation.

He said: This is an incident and investigation which has involved so many different police officers, police staff and volunteers.

On the night in question the responding officers, which included a Special Constable, had to deal with a volatile and violent man. They had no thought for their own safety when they entered that property and acted entirely in the interests of safeguarding Watts victims who were trapped inside.

They had just seconds to make decisions, including how to apprehend Watts when he was holding a knife to the throat of a woman carrying a small child.

Then, what followed was a detailed and sensitive investigation by specialist detectives, ensuring they had all the evidence needed to gain justice for the victims.

It is clear that Watts has no remorse for his actions, refusing to engage with the judicial process and forcing his victims to endure a trial. But I hope they will have some comfort in the fact that he will now be in jail for a long time.

If you have been a victim of sexual abuse, please speak to somebody. You can report it to the police by calling 101, or you can go to our website to find details of other agencies who can provide support. You can read more here.

You can also seek support and counselling from the Sexual Assault Referral Centre (SARC) based at the New Swindon Sanctuary they can be contacted on the 24-hour helpline 0808 168 0024.

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A man who held a family hostage at knifepoint during a terrifying incident earlier this year has been jailed for 23 years. - UK News in Pictures

Management License Agreement extended to open more than 600 hotels by 2034

MCLEAN, Va., SINGAPORE and SHANGHAI, Dec. 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Hilton (NYSE: HLT) and Jin Jiang International today announced the extension of the Hampton by Hilton management license agreement, extending the contract until 2034 to create a network of more than 600 Hampton by Hilton hotels in China.

In a virtual ceremony, Chris Nassetta (President and CEO), Alan Watts (President, Asia Pacific), Qian Jin (Area President, Greater China & Mongolia), Alexandra Jaritz (SVP, Brand Management), Lynette Lim (SVP & Assistant General Counsel), and Matt Fry (SVP, Development), joined the signing ceremony from McLean, Singapore and Shanghai.

Jin Jiang International was represented by Yu Minliang (Chairman of Jin Jiang International), Zhang Xiaoqiang (Vice President of Jin Jiang International, Chairman & CEO of Jin Jiang Hotels China Region), Zhou Wei (Vice President of Jin Jiang International, Head of Jin Jiang Global Innovation Center) from Shanghai. Wang Wei (Executive Vice President of Jin Jiang Hotels China Region, President of Shenzhen Headquarter, and CEO of Hampton by Hilton China) joined from Shenzhen.

The exclusive license agreement between Hilton and Plateno (now part of Jin Jiang Hotel China Region) was first signed in 2014 to tap into the potential of China's mid-scale hotel market. Building on the original 10-year partnership that has cemented Hampton by Hilton as a leading focused-service brand in China, this extension marks a strengthened cooperation between Hilton and Jin Jiang International, the largest hotel group in China, as they launch a new phase of joint development in an ambitious plan to operate over 600 Hampton by Hilton hotels in China.

With the growing demand in this hotel segment fueled by the expansion of the middle-class and overall upgraded consumption capacity of Chinese consumers, the 155thHampton by Hilton hotel in China opened in Beijing on Dec.7th. The license extension is expected to help Hampton by Hilton maintain its edge in the highly competitive mid-scale hotel sector in Hilton's top priority market, China.

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"I'm thrilled to strengthen our partnership with Jin Jiang International and the entire Hampton by Hilton team in China," said Chris Nassetta, President & CEO, Hilton. "China is an incredibly important market for Hilton, and the Hampton by Hilton brand has had huge success with the team sharing our signature hospitality with travelers at hundreds of hotels throughout the country. We look forward to building on this foundation and growing the brand together in China for years to come."

Yu Minliang, Chairman of Jin Jiang International commented, "Jin Jiang and Hilton are good partners of mutual trust and have had long-term friendly and in-depth cooperative relations in China and around the world. To renew the Hampton by Hilton brand MLA is of special significance, which fully reflects the firm confidence of both parties in the future recovery and revitalization of the global hotel industry. The joint efforts of the two teams are highly appreciated. I believe that the cooperation will definitely bear new fruits and become a new model of cooperation for the global industry."

"Hampton and Jin Jiang International set the benchmark for transnational hotel group cooperation in the China market. With an unprecedented strategy for the past six years, it has achieved a level of success beyond our expectations, thanks to the unwavering support from both sides," said Alan Watts, President, Asia Pacific, Hilton. "Following the landmark progress in this strategic partnership, we are delighted to deepen our relationship with Jin Jiang and further elevate and expand Hampton by Hilton in this key market."

Qian Jin, President for Greater China & Mongolia, Hilton remarked, "After nearly 10 years of rapid development, the mid-end hotel market is welcoming a new golden era. Hilton is honored to take on the challenge to meet new demands by putting forward higher requirements on brand quality and cost value. Over the years, Hampton by Hilton has exemplified Hilton's localization strategy in China as the brand has won trust and recognition from both customers and stakeholders. We are confident in Hampton by Hilton's prospects and believe this extension will facilitate our 2025 development goals in China in terms of brand growth, customer loyalty and reputation."

Mr. Zhang Xiaoqiang, Vice President of Jin Jiang International, Chairman and CEO of Jin Jiang Hotels China Region said, "We are very pleased to continue the long-term cooperation with Hilton. The successful development of Hampton by Hilton in China is a perfect interpretation of a win-win cooperation between two of the world's top hotel groups, demonstrating Hilton's leading brand influence in the global market and Jin Jiang International's strong operation strength and market development advantages. The in-depth cooperation between the two sides is bound to bring new vitality and opportunities for Hampton by Hilton's rapid development in China and help it continue to lead the upper-midscale hotel market. "

Ms. Wang Wei, Executive Vice President of Jin Jiang Hotels China Region, President of Shenzhen Headquarters, and CEO of Hampton by Hilton China, said: "After six years of development, Hampton by Hilton has established a distinctive brand image in China market and is deeply loved by owners and guests. With the close cooperation and strong support of the two hotel groups, the Hampton by Hilton China team will continue to focus on creating high-quality products and services and deepening the brand influence in China."

To date in China, there are 155 open Hampton hotels with over 350 in the development pipeline.

About Hilton

Hilton (NYSE: HLT) is a leading global hospitality company with a portfolio of 18 world-class brands comprising more than 6,300 properties with nearly one million rooms, in 118 countries and territories. Dedicated to fulfilling its mission to be the world's most hospitable company, Hilton has welcomed more than 3 billion guests in its more than 100-year history, earned a top spot on the 2020 World's Best Workplaces list, and was named the 2019 Global Industry Leader on the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices. In 2020, Hilton CleanStay was introduced, bringing an industry-defining standard of cleanliness and disinfection to hotels worldwide. Through the award-winning guest loyalty program Hilton Honors, the more than 110 million members who book directly with Hilton can earn Points for hotel stays and experiences money can't buy, plus enjoy instant benefits, including contactless check-in with room selection, Digital Key, and Connected Room. Visit newsroom.hilton.com for more information, and connect with Hilton on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and YouTube.

About Jin Jiang International

Jin Jiang International is one of the largest travel and hospitality groups in China and is one of the leading hotel brands in the global industry. The core businesses are hotel management & investment, tourist services & transport, and logistics services. Jin Jiang International manages and franchises a broad portfolio of more than 10,000 hotels and resorts with over 1.08 million rooms in 120 countries and regions. Jin Jiang International has more than 150 million members worldwide. In 2020, it ranks 1st in Asia and 2nd among all hotel giants byHotelsMagazine. Jin Jiang International has a portfolio of over 40 brands from Luxury, Mid-scale to Innovative brands such as "J", "Yan Garden", "Jin Jiang", "Kunlun", "Radisson Collection", "Radisson Blu", "Royal Tulip", "Golden Tulip", "Metropolo", "Campanile", "Lavande", "Vienna International" and more, which provide mixed oriental-western experience to guests globally. For more information, please visit http://www.jinjiang.com or download the app "Jin Jiang Hotels".

About Hampton by Hilton

As the number one ranked lodging franchise for the last decade and one of the top five brands of the century, according to Entrepreneur, Hampton by Hilton including Hampton Inn by Hilton and Hampton Inn & Suites by Hilton serves quality-driven and value-conscious travelers at more than 2,600 properties in 29 countries and territories. The brand continues to lead its segment by providing guests with high-quality, thoughtfully designed accommodations and amenities, such as modern and spacious rooms, complimentary Wi-Fi and free hot breakfast. Hampton by Hilton Team Members are committed to delivering exceptionally friendly and authentic service all backed by the 100% Hampton GuaranteeTM. Hilton Honors members who book directly through preferred Hilton channels have access to instant benefits. For more information about Hampton by Hilton, visit http://www.hampton.com or newsroom.hilton.com/hampton, and connect on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram.

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Hilton and Jin Jiang International Extend Cooperation to Launch Next Chapter of Hampton by Hilton's Accelerated China Development - Yahoo Finance

Dear Editor,

Racism is caused by race labelling; it is a global problem that is used as the main tool by politicians to secure power and power bases in populations that are weighted down by demographic labels, regardless of the economic and social systems practiced.

Capitalism, Communism or Socialism are all undermined by this unhealthy social construct that feeds off of recognizing another human being as different, in an inferior way.

Alan Watts, a philosopher and writer on Buddhism, Taoism, and Hinduism said: Nothing exists independently, everything is a thing, only in relation to everything else, therefore there are no separate things, no real selves or souls or egos and trying to cling to these things is the cause of suffering, discord and frustration.

Imagine in our Guyana that free and fair elections were held in 2020 and Walter Rodneys Working Peoples Alliance had won the election; let us imagine how Walter Rodney would have governed, with the power bestowed on him by our constitution.

Then our leaders must stop imagining and govern like Dr. Walter Rodney would. Under these circumstances, Guyana would have tangible and meaningful inclusive governance and massive economic growth, regardless of which administration governs.

In the imaginings, we assume the philosophy of Walter still obtains when he was killed on June 13, 1980, and that his philosophy would be the bedrock and priority of the new administration.

Then one immediately gets a sense of how misdirection, wrong paths and racism dominates our political culture, as it has existed since PPP split in 1955.

From whichever demographic we are separated into, I dare say guiltiness will abound amongst our political leaders, as they know they have embraced an anti-Guyanese political culture.

Racism is a disease. Poverty is a disease. Our politicians need to recognize that the cleansing of these scourges must be addressed in a deliberative and focused way.

To rephrase the great philosopher Aim Csaire: Politicians and politics and its various isms must be harnessed into the service of people and not the other way around, and moreover, absolutely not in a discriminatory manner.

Yours faithfully,

Nigel Hinds

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Politicians must recognise racism is a scourge that has to be cleansed - Stabroek News

Download copy from here Alan Watts :: What Is The Self ?

Youtube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekwg-rQS6mU&feature=youtu.be

On an average day, about a dozen new games are released on Steam. And while we think that's a good thing, it can be understandably hard to keep up with. Potentially exciting gems are sure to be lost in the deluge of new things to play unless you sort through every single game that is released on Steam. So thats exactly what weve done.If nothing catches your fancy this week, we've gathered thebest PC gamesyou can play right now and a running list of the2020 gamesthat are launching this year.

Steam page Release: October 3 Developer: Magnetic Scrolls Price: $4.68 | 3.47 | AU$6.66

Stretching the definition of "new" here, I know, The Legacy was originally released in 1993. Ziggurat Interactive have been rereleasing old games on Steam, and among the latest batch is this Lovecraftian horror RPG, which plays like Legend of Grimrock, to pick a modern example. You create a character to explore Winthrop House, cast spells at zombies, and die quite early on if my memories of the 1990s are anything to go by.

Steam page Release: October1 Developer: DeepGreen Games Price: $0.69 | 0.55 | AU$1.05

The BOT.vinnik Chess games, of which this is the second, teach the basics of chess with the aid of a cranky, moustachioed Russian artificial intelligence. Learn how to set up checkmates, and when you get it wrong get scolded by a Soviet AI until you start to treasure praise like "Not bad, comrade!" as if it's come from your own parents. Currently 30% off with a launch discount.

Steam page Release: September 30 Developer: HiFight Price: $3.99 | 2.89 | AU$5.95

Footsies is a fighting-game trainer that's been around for a couple of years, but has only now come to Steam with online play and rollback- rather than delay-based netcode. Footsies is a minimalist ground-based fighting game that has just one attack and two directional buttons, designed to help develop fundamentals of the genre like whiff-punishing, spacing, hit-confirming, and footsies.

Steam page Release: October 1 Developer: Aldo Jeffrey Price: Free

Describing Transcender is a challenge. If you've played Everything, the game where you inhabit various objects and creatures while listening to philosopher Alan Watts talk about the interconnectedness of all things, you might be on firm ground. Transcender is a terraforming management game, and a walking simulator, and a headfuck in videogame form. It's about 30 minutes long and currently free, and if you want your day to get weirder playing this will do that.

Steam page Release: October 2 Developer: Berzah Games Price: $24.99 | 19.49 | AU$35.95

This action-platformer is inspired by Turkish mythology and based on a story from the Book of Dede Korkut. It looks gorgeous, especially the fiery magical effects and the layered nature of its backdrops, and the music's great too.

These games were released between September 28 and October 5 2020. Some online stores give us a small cut if you buy something through one of our links. Read ouraffiliate policyfor more info.

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Five new Steam games you probably missed (October 5, 2020) - PC Gamer

Every week the Stereogum staff chooses the five best new songs of the week (the eligibility period begins and ends Thursdays right before midnight). This weeks countdown is below, and you can listen to a playlist of all our 5 Best Songs on Spotify.

Exactly 20 years after Radiohead released Kid A, Donald Trump tested positive for COVID-19. Coincidence?!? OK yeah its probably a coincidence. This weeks best songs are below.

To coincide with International Safe Abortion Day, Amanda Shires and Jason Isbell have turned the extremely heavy experience of contemplating an abortion into an extremely heavy country-rock ballad. Throughout The Problem, the real-life spouses powerfully articulate the questions that come flooding in upon news of an unplanned pregnancy, building emotional tension until the levee breaks and a guitar solo bursts forth like sunlight after the storm. I support a womans right to choose, and I know these choices are never easy, Shires wrote in a statement accompanying The Problem. Neither is writing a song this effective, not that youd know it based on this couples track record. Chris

What is Scandinavian pain and where can I get some? Salt Licorice, the chaotically good new team-up between Jnsi and Robyn, makes sadness feel ecstatic. It sounds like ice castles melting, blistering noise and pulsating beats thumping through the frustrations of two people never fully connecting. Why cant you just be OK? Youre such an ice breaker on me, they sing at each other. Why cant you just be led astray? Cause youre a heartbreaker only.

Throughout, the music masters from the North sing about their Scandinavian pain, treating this malaise as something inextricable. They make you want to feel that pain right alongside them, twitch out your problems on a dance floor or even just alone in your own room, as the two of them do in the ridiculously fun Salt Licorice music video, which finds them shaving their heads and smearing themselves with goo just as a way to feel something new. James

We all have a soft spot for the music of our misspent youth, the songs and the artists that blew our tiny minds when we were first delving into the hidden world of music fandom. For Kisses Jesse Kivel, who came of age in the 90s, those bands were Oasis, the Smashing Pumpkins, Primal Scream, and Polaris. His new song Northside is a love letter to that time in his life, but beyond the extremely 90s, My Bloody Valentine-inspired drum programming, it doesnt exactly sound like any of the aforementioned groups. Its not pastiche, an exercise in pure nostalgia. Instead, it just nails that same wistful, yearning melodic warmth that his idols so often trafficked in. And maybe, just maybe, some kid getting into music now will have the same experience with Northside that Kivel did with 1979 or Soon. Peter

Along with their (extremely good) debut album World House, the Toronto hardcore band Mil-Spec have published a huge and generally entertaining zine, one with essays and comics and movie reviews and one extended intra-band conversation. There are also annotated lyrics for every song on World House, dense and specific pointers to all those lyrics allusions to Don DeLillo and Joan Didion and Alan Watts and Leatherface. The members of Mil-Spec would like you to know that all references to quarantine and contagion on their towering, rampaging song Colony are unfortunate and coincidental, written before the pandemic hit. But intentional or not, current circumstances lend a jolt of urgency to a song that wouldve already been plenty urgent.

If youve ever been a fan of hardcore, theres something almost reassuring about Mil-Specs sound the chunky riffage, the rhythmic switch-ups between sprint and stomp, the strangulated and passionate vocals. But Mil-Spec put a lot of thought into everything they do, and they arent just at play in the fields of genre. Theyre using their gifts for speed and melody and intensity to make something raw and self-assured and moving. You might not know the Audre Lorde quotation on Colony my silence has not protected me but youll feel it in your bones. Tom

Im not sure what I was expecting from Romy Madley Crofts first single, but it certainly wasnt this. The xx singer has, of course, been at the center of a dance song thanks to Jamie xx with Loud Places, but even that was sultry and restrained in the way youve come to expect from the xx. In contrast, Lifetime, her first track as a solo artist, is an undeniable jam. Written and recorded during lockdown, its a pure explosion of energy, born of a moment when even the most introverted among us are struggling with being constantly isolated.

Lifetime is joyous; it hopes for a future when we can all reconvene together on the dance floor. Once in a lifetime/ Youll be right beside me, Ill be right beside you, she sings over and over, an affirmation that we shouldnt take any moment for granted because weve seen how quickly all those moments can slip away. When Im at my first party after all this has passed whether thats months or years away Im stealing the aux and blasting this as loud as I fucking can. For right now, while were still all apart, its a necessary reminder of how elating being together can feel. James

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Best New Songs Of The Week: Robyn, Jonsi, Romy, & More - Stereogum

Congresss inability to actually represent the real-live human beings of America, combined with an economic system that rewards lack of empathy and an excess of greed, has brought us to a dark time when an oncoming tsunami of financial ruin, destitution and evictions towers over our heads, blocking out the sunlight.

The impending evictions may soonkick 28 million people/familiesout of their homes. To put that in perspective, only ten million people lost their homes during the 2008 economic crisis, and that was considered by anyone paying attention to be the craziest thing to ever happen.

What were facing now could be three times crazier, getting to Charlie Sheen levels. (I almost wrote Kanye West levels but everything he does is in hopes of being mentioned in the media, and Im not falling for it. Shit. This parenthetical has betrayed me!)

To talk about the impending homelessness tsunami, we have to first get past the fact that our government could totally bail people out and keep them in their homes. Not only have they already bailed out big banks and Wall Street to the tune of$4.25 trillionbut on top of that the Pentagon hasover $21Trillionof unaccounted-for adjustments on their books over the past 20 years. This is to say theres plenty of money.

Money is an idea, a concept, an imaginary metaphysical belief, and its high time we faced the fact that the U.S. government has an unlimited imagination. As philosopher Alan Watts once put it: Money is not a thing, its a measurement. Saying theres not enough money to do something is like a builder saying there are not enough inches to build a house. He has the wood, nails, and hammers. Hes just out of inches.

The U.S. government could easily give every American $2,000 a month for the foreseeable future, which would keep almost everybody in their homes and apartments. In fact, Canada has opted togive $2,000 a monthto those who lost work because of the pandemic.

But ignore the fact that theres enough money. Thats not what were here to discuss.

There are also enough empty homes.As of 2018, there were nearly 1.5 million vacant homes in the country. Compare that to the estimated553,742 people homelesson any given night. So even before the pandemic, there were three empty houses for every homeless person. Three. Thats not even accounting for empty apartments, yachts, sheds, extra bedrooms, garages, condos, cubbyholes, attic spaces, basements, barns, pool houses, and walk-in refrigerators.

If those vacant locations were used to house the houseless, those of us lucky enough to have our own abodes wouldnt hardly notice a difference except that homelessness would have vanished. It would be something we talk about in a remember when fashion like VHS tapes, game shows about grocery shopping, and dating that didnt involve blood tests and an Instagram audit.

No more people on the street, no more fear that a little bad luck would result in you or your family under a bridge giving a guy your underwear in exchange for a sandwich. All that utter madness would cease to exist.

And the impending number of evictions28 millionisnt even accounting for how many people stay in horrible relationships because they cant afford a place of their own, both horrible marriages and other living arrangements. (Like a 25-year-old who has to live with his mom who cleans her feet on the couch every night while watching Wheel of Fortune and eating soup that smells of rotting raccoon carcass. Call me crazy, but in our post-scarcity world, that 25-year-old should be given an apartment.)

But lets back up even further and question the brain parasites we were given from our social engineering. Why should someone be homeless just because they dont have enough money? Some would say indignantly, Because they didnt work hard enough, so they deserve to be homeless. Thats called work ethic and its what this countrys founded on! George Washington something something Ford Motor Company. Meh!

Okay, thats a great point exceptNo, its not. How hard someone works hardly matters in our society. Think for a moment about all the filthy rich trust-fund kids who sit around on their asses all day smoking weed out of the skull of an exotic lemur. Yet theyre still rich. How many trophy wives or trophy husbands lounge by the pool eternally caressing their junk in the sunshine? They dont work hard. How many superfluous board members get paid hundreds of thousands to sit on a board and attend one conference call a month?

Plus, consider people that actually do work for their fortuneslike a CEOdo you honestly believe they work athousand timesharder than a janitor or a dishwasher or a coal miner? Of course not. Whats the hardest job in the world? Probably ripping asbestos out of a dilapidated sewage treatment plant in Phoenix, Arizona in 110-degree heat with improper safety equipment.

Do you think those guys get paid the highest salary in the world because they work the hardest? No! Theyre lucky if they get dental. Theyre lucky if their lunch break is long enough for a sandwichanda piss.

America is not based on hard work. Get it out of your head that this society is at all set up to be fair. Fair would be everyone with a roof over their head. Fair would be every kid getting a solid education. Fair would be every person drinking delicious clean water. Fair is the opposite of whatever the hell were doing here.

But very little of this discussion exists in our culture. Instead, the banks and landlords are preparing to kick 28 million families out. And its not like the bank will resell all those homes during the impending depression lathered in a pandemic. Nope. Those homes will sit empty, just like the 10 million foreclosed homes during the 2008 Great Recession sat empty for months if not years. So the reason for kicking people out is simply to um make sure theyre homeless? How can that make sense?

If the goal is to have a good, functioning society, its completely illogical to kick people out of their shelters. The families will be devastated. The kids will be traumatized. Divorces will occur. Suicides. Addiction. Overdoses. None of that is good for society. None of that helps America even slightly. So the trulypatrioticthing to do is demand housing for all.

Whats good for society is to have people comfortable in their homes, able to get educated and grow as humans. Whatever happened to the pursuit of human growth for every individual?

Some may argue, We cant let people stay in their homes because we need to teach them personal responsibility. Thats the argument every vomit-brained Fox News guest spits out reflexively. Yet its impossible to be responsible for something no one saw coming. Did anyone see this pandemic coming? Did anyone including the government prepare for it?

No. In fact, weve bailed out whole industries, the airline industry for one. Billions of dollars just handed to them. How are the heads of the airlines any different from a homeowner who lost her job in the pandemic? Theres no difference. Shouldnt the airline CEOs be the ones evictedleft out on the street sleeping in a box?

On top of all thisand this point is really going to blow a hole through your pantsits cheaper to keep people in their homes. For example,according toTheWashington Post, Utah was spending on average $20,000 on each chronically homeless person. So, to in part cut those costs but also to save lives, the state started setting up each chronically homeless person with his or her own house.

It worked. By 2015, they cut homelessness by 91 percent and saved the state money. However, since then, homelessness has gone back up. Its tough to say why, but one director of aUtah food pantry said, The mistake we made was stopping [the program].

Yeah, thatmayhave been the reason. Utah lawmakers found out how to end homelessness. and then they stopped doing that! (Why in this country do we run screaming from every great idea like its a hive of angry bees that all want to talk to us about life insurance??)

So here, alas, are the solutions. Housing should be a human right. We have enough homes. We have enough materials. We have enough dollars and enough inches. It doesnt need to be a goddamn mansion, but everyone should have a roof over their heads and four good walls. Hell, Ill even compromisetwo and a half good walls.

Even if we didnt have enough homes, which we do, we can now3D print a housein a matter of hours. (Although it must suck when the printer jams. All those houses stuck together in the tray.)

Point is, dont tell me we dont have enough houses and apartments for everyone.Paris Hiltons dogshave a fucking $325,000 mansion! Im not kidding. Just for the dogs. Thats, shall we say, mildly upsetting. (Let me guess those dogs worked hard to get where they are.)

The next solution is to fight the impending evictions. Dont let the authorities kick your friends and neighbors onto the street. We have a strong (suppressed) history in this country of fighting against landlords and the cruelty of evictions, such as the greatRent Strike War of 1932in the Bronx, and theChicago Eviction Riots of 1931.

Fighting back is not just an option, its an obligation. If youre strong enough to resist the profit-centered social engineering we are fed every day of our lives, then you will soon realize housing should be a human right.

Feature photo | This Sept. 25, 2019 photo shows an eviction notice on the front door of Apartment 17, the home of Ed Buck in West Hollywood, Calif. Brian Melley | AP

Lee Camp is the host of the hit comedy news show Redacted Tonight. His new book Bullet Points and Punch Lines is available atLeeCampBook.comand his stand-up comedy special can be streamed for free atLeeCampAmerican.com.

This article was published with special permission from the author. It originally appeared atConsortium News.

Stories published in our Daily Digests section are chosen based on the interest of our readers. They are republished from a number of sources, and are not produced by MintPress News. The views expressed in these articles are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect MintPress News editorial policy.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect MintPress News editorial policy.

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Lee Camp: A Dozen Reasons Now is the Time for Housing as a Human Right - Mintpress News